Pakistani Refugees Recall Nightmare With Taliban

Long-Haired Jihadists Uprooted Tribal Life in Mountainous Frontier

By

Saeed Shah

July 2, 2014 7:24 p.m. ET

BANNU, Pakistan—Refugees who have fled here from the North Waziristan tribal area during the government's military offensive describe what they left behind as a nightmarish world of unbalanced, gun-toting young men.

In the past two weeks, half a million people have left North Waziristan, an area along the Afghan border that the Pakistani army calls the "center of gravity" for the country's Islamist militants.